Adrenergic innervation of the developing chick heart: neural crest ablations to produce sympathetically aneural hearts

Journal Article · Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 EST 1984 · Am. J. Anat.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/aja.1001710306· OSTI ID:5750074

Kirby, M; Stewart, D

Ablation of various regions of premigratory trunk neural crest which gives rise to the sympathetic trunks was used to remove sympathetic cardiac innervation. Neuronal uptake of (/sup 3/H)-norepinephrine was used as an index of neuronal development in the chick atrium. Following ablation of neural crest over somites 10-15 or 15-20, uptake was significantly decreased in the atrium at 16 and 17 days of development. Ablation of neural crest over somites 5-10 and 20-25 caused no decrease in (/sup 3/H)-norepinephrine uptake. Removal of neural crest over somites 5-25 or 10-20 caused approximately equal depletions of (/sup 3/H)-norepinephrine uptake in the atrium. Cardiac norepinephrine concentration was significantly depressed following ablation of neural crest over somites 5-25 but not over somites 10-20. Light-microscopic and histofluorescent preparations confirmed the absence of sympathetic trunks in the region of the normal origin of the sympathetic cardiac nerves following neural crest ablation over somites 10-20. The neural tube and dorsal root ganglia were damaged in the area of the neural-crest ablation; however, all of these structures were normal cranial and caudal to the lesioned area. Development of most of the embryos as well as the morphology of all of the hearts was normal following the lesion. These results indicate that it is possible to produce sympathetically aneural hearts by neural-crest ablation; however, sympathetic cardiac nerves account for an insignificant amount of cardiac norepinephrine.

• Research Organization: Medical College of Georgia, Augusta
• OSTI ID: 5750074
• Journal Information: Am. J. Anat.; (United States), Vol. 171:3
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
SURGERY
NERVES
REMOVAL
NORADRENALINE
UPTAKE
CHICKENS
EMBRYOS
FLUORESCENCE
HEART
MORPHOLOGY
NEUROLOGY
ADRENAL HORMONES
ANIMALS
AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM AGENTS
BIRDS
BODY
CARDIOTONICS
CARDIOVASCULAR AGENTS
CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM
DRUGS
FOWL
HORMONES
LUMINESCENCE
MEDICINE
NERVOUS SYSTEM
NEUROREGULATORS
ORGANS
STEROID HORMONES
SYMPATHOMIMETICS
VERTEBRATES
550901* - Pathology- Tracer Techniques